500 Abuse

[skullcap]

Skidbiter;

 

Obviously this is close to home for you, yes they are working, and in your opinion and the many who did this,, the ends justifies the means.

 

Many of those guys didn't make it(many shots in the books show "the late____"), there was a definate persona attached to deer hunting, why bother to show your prowess shooting cans with an ar15 while hovering? I counted 5 blade strikes in the one flight. Most fellas if they had one blade strike doing this work, would probably at least land and check it out, not get more aggressive and keep going don't cha think? One can argue that they could afford new blades and just keep going, but could they afford the down time for the sudden stoppage inspection and the overhaul of trans/freewheel? Or did those inspections get bypassed?

 

You see the road am going down and will end up in really going nowhere. There are many jobs that get done by just going and doing it, regardless. I have seen pilots flying is absolute crap in mountains just to move drillers and have seen pilots fly safley and the drillers wait. In these situations there are ways to do the job safely if the egos is left out of the picture.

 

Deer hunting they way this is done there is probably no real safe method,,,,but is it worth your life or the lives of others? To each their own, but in my opinion unless there are bullets coming the other way I doubt if most think so?

 

Really don't think topic is great and will do nothing but alienate folks. Lets all let the water go by.

[dimit]

My, how times change, eh?

 

Sounds like that kind of flyin' was status quo, for that kinda work, back in the day.

 

If I were to green my blade tips that way I'd be out on my *** in a second! And rightly so, I'd say. Who knows what kind of long term probs w/ head, drive train etc would ensue. Might be more than just a new set of blades?!

 

Glad for our growing safety culture, including duty time restrictions, mandatory daze off, etc etc, and less tolerance of equipment abuse. Hats off to you old guyz who pioneered the way and helped make things safer for us newbies!!!

 

RotoNutz: It's a good vid fer generating discussion, that's fer shur! Up to us to keep that discussion from turning into a slag-fest.

 

Cheers,

 

D'ick

[Skidbiter]

Skullcap

 

You are right, many did die and still do, the risk is part of the allure to that industry, all on board know the risk involved, no paying customers. And if you need bullets to justify that kind of flying, well you got that as well if you strayed too far from where you were permitted to be.

 

It's the freest form of flying in my opinion, you do what you need to to get the deer, not worrying about too many rules in the bush, or passengers complaining or being sick.

I agree, it's not good on the gear, and I'm sure there were quite a few bad habits created, but like one of the video's states, it was the last great adventure in NZ.

 

I agree, I don't see this going anywhere good, already the alienation has started, ( holy that was a big word for me).

 

Every one has a right to there own opinion, just bugs me when people sit on there high horses and make judgment on things like this, times do change, a lot of things were done in the past that aren't done now!

[dimit]

Good points about freedom, Skidbiter. Reminds me of something about freedom and responsibility. Not meaning to point fingers at deer hunting drivers as irresponsible. That was another time and place, I wasn't there, not mine to judge. More like reflecting on how "we" give up some freedom by handing the responsibility (regulation) to the gov. Pick yer arena and Big Bro is there layin' down the rules. Not always a bad thing ie duty times etc.

 

Anyways, the driver in the vid at the top of the thread certainly could take it to the edge of the envelop! Quite amazing display of brinksmanship!!! Skillful? Absolutely! Crazy? That too!!

 

'Nuff outta me,

 

D'ick

[Hughesy]

Actually at the time of the Venison recovery days, the regs were not as a pain in the butt as they are today. AS it says in the video, if they were regulated as heavily then as they are today, the venison industry would never have gotten of the ground.

Thanks to these guys, NZ has a pretty decent deer farming industry worth millions in oversea's exports.

[WTF_was_that]

Hey WTF,

Obviously you went to all that trouble of putting that on youtube just so you could come back to the vertical website and post the link on here to start what will inevitably be some crap talk about the venison pilots of NZ. Im asuming you have nothing better to do.

 

Many videos links end up here. Most of pilots doing odd things with A/C. It would seem this touches a nerve with you, are you worried opinions will change of NZ heli pilot.

[gwk]

Fascinating display of flying!

Now, anybody want to buy a bunch of hardly used 500,s I,ve just imported from NZ.

Didn,t think so!

 

 

About sums it up if you catch my drift!

[FREDDIE]

I know Several of those crews from NZ who Deer hunted. I saw them fly up here shifting Drills and working through out the industry.I would fly any Heli they flew here good professional bunch.

[TwistedSpar]

whats worse... an aircraft flown to it's limits by an experienced guy or an inexpereinced guy testing his own limits in an aircraft???

 

apples and oranges I guess, but I'd like to see the maintenance logs of the aircraft afterwards, that will tell me a truer picture of the scenario....

[bh205]

omg